Car pre-purchase inspection

Forums › Off topic › Car pre-purchase inspection

heavyusr

83 posts

Master Geek

#141275 7-Mar-2014 02:58

Once I have found a car I would like to buy from a dealer and I want a pre-purchase inspection done, do I have to organise the pre-purchase inspection to be done or is it common to just pay the dealer and the dealer organises it?
Oh and do most people still use bank cheques to buy cars now or do people use mobile banking while at the dealership?

tripp

3848 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1000473 7-Mar-2014 06:55

I would arrange the pre-purchase inspection myself (but depends if car comes with warranty etc). Would rather have someone I picked to do the inspection and not an "arrange" that the dealership might have.

When i purchased my car I just paid the deposit via eftpos (my bank lets you do up to 5k a day via eftpos) then the rest by internet banking that night and picked up the car the following week (it's a new car so they had to get it ready).

scuwp

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#1000482 7-Mar-2014 07:51

Arrange the pre-purchase inspection with your chosen provider yourself, and let the dealer know the details of the booking. They normally take it there for you IME.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

DravidDavid

1907 posts

Uber Geek

#1000493 7-Mar-2014 08:08

Arrange it yourself and use this guy:

http://www.incarautomotive.co.nz/

He is awesome at what he does. Looks after both of our cars and completed 3 pre-purchase inspections for us. He rocks up in front of the car you want to check out and completes a full inspection as per his website. If he finds a deal breaker, he will call it and charge you for what he has done rather than the whole thing.

It's so much easier having someone come to you rather than having to sign paperwork to take the car away for inspection or have the dealer take it to 'his guy'.

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1000509 7-Mar-2014 08:41

I've only ever bought from big main dealers (Audi, Toyota, Nissan) so have never bothered having pre-inspections on the basis that they can be trusted to correct issues arising, are not likely to be swindling me with cut and shuts etc and what I was buying was under warranty in any case.

As regard payment I have usually just transferred funds using the web.

trig42

5814 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1000531 7-Mar-2014 09:10

I'd agree, unless you are using a main dealer (like an authorized Nissan, Toyota, Ford or whatever dealer), never use the dealerships guy for a pre-purchase inspection. Use your own guy, or the AA or similar.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79289 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#1000583 7-Mar-2014 10:35

Arrange it yourself and make sure YOUR name is in the booking so YOU get the report, not the dealer.

First because if anything is pointed in the report it is your bargaining chip.

Second because if you end up not buying the car but the dealer gets a reports saying "it's all good" they might end up using the report YOU paid as supporting evidence when selling the car to someone else.

It's YOUR report, not theirs.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29766 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1000585 7-Mar-2014 10:37

the dealer could be truthful and get an independant opinion, but chances are, the inspector works for him and ... dot ... dot ... dot ...

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

jonathan18

7413 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1000590 7-Mar-2014 10:42

Agree re the lack of need to get an inspection done if purchasing from a "brand" dealership; that's what's determined if we got one done or not.

I would say that one key advantage of getting an inspection done at the company's site (versus a mobile service) is that they will have the equipment (ie hoist) to allow a full and proper inspection underneath the car.

Also, note that having an inspection done is unfortunately no guarantee there aren't problems - we had one done on a car which was later proven to having had a blown head gasket. Supposedly should have been picked up in the cylinder tests they did but... And that car has since had a replacement engine and huge problems with its transmission and ECU - and those are only the biggest issues! We seemed to have no come-back with the inspector (but, thank god, the dealer was ok about meeting the costs to fix these big problems; a huge advantage of purchasing from a dealer rather than privately).

Paulthagerous

698 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1000594 7-Mar-2014 10:44

freitasm: Arrange it yourself and make sure YOUR name is in the booking so YOU get the report, not the dealer.

First because if anything is pointed in the report it is your bargaining chip.

Second because if you end up not buying the car but the dealer gets a reports saying "it's all good" they might end up using the report YOU paid as supporting evidence when selling the car to someone else.

It's YOUR report, not theirs.

+1. You want the original copy of the report, not a second hand one where anything could have been modified. They might get a draft copy, fix a few things, then give you a final copy that doesn't give a true representation of the state the car WAS in.

I have used the AA three times, and my brother once. First time they picked a rooted gearbox that stopped me buying it (I hadn't driven it so I had no idea). Second 2 times they picked up just a few small things so I said to the dealer 'fix these and we're good'.

I used AA, one benefit is they will go to the car. Once you get the report you can call up and (in my experience) are happy to discuss what the report says.

I paid by bank cheque both times I bought a car.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79289 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#1000598 7-Mar-2014 10:47

We were looking at a car and paid for a price report (the car was being privately sold 2/3 of the report price) in excellent condition but... the technical report said the car was great but had a small oil leak underneath and a rattling underneath the car when driving 40km - 50km/h but disappeared after that.

We told the owner we'd buy the car if a more detailed inspection at our local Ford dealer showed no problems, but he said "I have a service done last month with a friend, here's an email from him".

The email basically said "the car is in good condition. The leak could be transmission and if anything happens with transmission within six months then we will fix for free".

The problem is that we don't know his friend from anyone else and the problem could be anything, not only transmission, so his offer of fixing it wasn't really great. And no word on the rattling which could be a good expense to fix if related to exhaust as suspected.

We didn't buy the car, even though we spent around $100 in inspection (or because we did).

alasta

6706 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#1000630 7-Mar-2014 11:15

If I were going to buy a car second hand I would get one with a full service history and forgo any inspection. If you can confirm that the vehicle has been maintained according to the manufacturer's specification then you're highly unlikely to have any problems unless it's really high milage, whereas an inspection on a car with unknown history is only going to tell you what faults exist at the present point in time.

When I bought my car I paid by bank cheque because I wanted to hand over payment at exactly the same time as collecting the car. The problem with paying by internet banking is that you have the (admittedly very small) risk that the dealer goes bust in the day or two before you collect the vehicle.